When cutting a complete, precompacted fuel element bundle using a fuel element bundle shears in a reprocessing facility, there is a need for the fuel element bundle to be cut with as low a cutting force as possible in order to obtain good opening cross sections and in order to minimize the wear at the shears.
It is known from German Pat. No. 20 09 081 to use stepped blades for fuel element bundle shears, which have a large number of blade steps. In this way, the fuel element bundle is severed gradually by a large number of small steps. The blade steps in this arrangement have a staircase-like configuration. During the cutting operation, all the steps are in engagement with the bundle to be cut at a given time so that the blade force presses against the entire surface of the fuel element bundle.
It has been determined that a stepped blade of this kind is subject to a high rate of wear as the corners and edges are subjected to a very high loading. This results in the stepped blade having a relatively short service life. It was also found that there is the disadvantage that the opening cross sections of the cut fuel rod segments deteriorate as the fuel rod tubes can penetrate into the corners and edges of the steps of the blade. However, in order to reliably control the process of breaking up the nuclear fuel, it is necessary for the opening cross sections to be in as unsquashed a form as possible.